While sheltering-in-place during our present global circumstances, I had the privilege to playtest the upcoming expansion to SpaceCorp, titled SpaceCorp: Ventures. One of my favorite parts of the new game is the updated solo play options, especially the custom competition HQ! Over several articles, I’ll be playing the new player HQ New Nomads against the competition HQ D.P. Roberts Ltd.         

 Note that all images in this article are near final art and subject to change. While very nicely printed, the final components will be printed on cards and thick cardstock, while my copy was made at a local printshop.

The solo system for the base game of SpaceCorp is fantastic, and rightfully so coming from arguably the finest solo systems designer in the hobby, John Butterfield. The upcoming Ventures expansion for SpaceCorp takes the game to a new level. You now have the option of playing any one of ten unique player HQ’s (multiplayer Ventures has 14 unique player HQs) paired against one of four unique competition HQ’s. This alone is worth the price of the upgrade, but John also added new contracts to fulfill, adjustments to how the competition will respond, and new final profit choices. All of this makes the solo system shine even brighter. My own success rate against the competition has dropped to the 20-25% range, which I feel is the winning sweet spot for a solo system.

The competition HQ in Ventures use adjusted site actions which change the character of the competitions (these modifications are detailed in this InsideGMT post, and are usable with the SpaceCorp base game too).. If the competition draws a Site Action for a location with a base (yours or theirs) it will now try to perform that Site Action at a different location with one of its deployed teams. It will only draw a new card as a last result. This has two ramifications; it more quickly establishes their presence and it reduces their deck’s depletion which can lengthen the eras giving them more time to rack up profit. This extends into Planeteers but it’s not until you reach Starfarers that you see how effective this becomes.

Ventures also includes new era specific contract cards which add an 8th row to the contracts display. At the beginning of each era a new contract card is randomly drawn and tucked under the contracts display. Each contract card has 2 contracts, one is used for 1-4 players, the other for 2-4 players only. In solo play you slide the contract for 1-4 players face up. In multiplayer, the contract is chosen by the player in last place at the start of each era.

The next thing you’ll notice is the setup is different based on what HQ you’re playing and what competition HQ you’re playing against. Reference the top left corner of your HQ to see what you start with and check if there are any base adjustments at the bottom. Look at the competition HQ to see what setup changes are listed as well. The competition HQ I’m playing against, D.P. Roberts Ltd starts with a competition team on contract 6. The HQ I’m playing, New Nomads, does not begin with a Start Card, but does begin with 3 Teams instead of 2. And they also only have 1 refinery base and 1 secure base. That puts a damper on the production strategy, but don’t worry: they have some new goodies that will more than offset that.

Each player HQ also has a set of unique capabilities, these are described along the bottom of your HQ. New Nomads have several incredible capabilities one of which is a Migrate Action, which allows the removal of a base from the departure site instead of paying the move cost. In the next article, I’ll show you the simple power of this as well as breakdown some of the features of a new competition HQ and get started playing Mariners.

Side note: the setup calls for using twelve cubes belonging to the three unused player colors, but I prefer to use a single color for the competition so I purchased 12 yellow cubes separately for them.

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Previous SpaceCorp: Ventures Article: Enhanced Competition in Solo SpaceCorp